With three days to go, there’s still time to be part of this success story, says co-editor Hazel Healy.

Readers, we did it!

At 10.06 on Sunday night, 32 days into our Crowdfunder, we hit our £500,000 target. It was an amazing moment. This bright springtime Monday morning finds us elated here at New Internationalist – this is a roaring endorsement of all that our magazine has achieved over its 44-year history and what it will now go on to be.

It’s a hugely exciting and transformative moment for us as a co-operative, but also a great uplift for the principles we all share. The success of this Crowdfunder demonstrates that thousands of people do care about the lives of others, thousands of miles away – and are fiercely committed to independent journalism that helps us to understand the world – and change it. In the words of one new co-owner: ‘turns out hope conquers fear, after all.’

Setting off on this journey was daunting, to say the least. Speaking to people during the course of this campaign more than one person asked politely – why did you set the target so high? By our calculations, half-a-million was the minimum we need to turn our business round. If that was a mountain to climb, we have now launched off in a glider, as we are now heading for a £600,000 stretch-target.

Why the stretch? The funds we have raised this far mean that New Internationalist will be able not just to continue, but to do more. This means more ground-breaking multimedia such as our After Ebola project, shortlisted by the One World Media awards just this week.

It means more coverage of communities at the heart of the struggle to save our environment, such as this one, whose story reached over 12 million during the Paris climate talks. And more magazines that uncover what’s really going on in the world, like The Coming War on China by John Pilger.

Anything more we are able to raise between now and 6 April will help us get our socially conscious journalism out to even more people and bolster our long-term prospects. Specifically, we can funnel more resources to key areas such as website development and editorial staff time, and expand the reach of our publishing in books, print and online.

As I write, things are speeding up. We have now passed £528,000. And there’s still time for people to come on board and join in with this democratic media experiment – for 3 more days. So do please check out our video on factsandheart.org, read our Business Plan and Offer, and see if this is something you would like to get behind.

If there is one stand-out fact in this campaign so far, it’s this: almost all pledges have come from ordinary people. The largest cheque, for £10,000, came in on Monday from a retired professor in Finland, who has subscribed for the past 30 years.

It feels as if we are breaking new ground. This truly is people-powered media that is defying the trend of media concentration and clickbait journalism. Our independence has always allowed us to tell stories the way they are meant to be told – without voyeurism and without spin.

It turns out that’s the thing that our supporters value most. I’d like to finish this campaign update with some of the reasons that our investors have given for choosing to become co-owners:

‘Because accurate, values-led journalism has never been so important.’

‘NI goes where the mainstream media fear to tread and holds the rich and powerful to account.’

‘Always impressive, always challenging. Always on the right side. Long may your voice be heard.’